When the Nightmare is Over
by kodoku na oujo
Summary: I had tried to distant myself from the mission, but how I could I possibly do that? How could anyone even remotely sane do this? The last thing going through my brain was thinking that if I left now I would be able to spare him. No pairings


**Well today will be quite a day for me. Not only will it be Itachi's birthday, but it's also my first day of working at my new job. I was amazed that I was able to get this story out on time because of that. I had to do a training CD and write this at the same time. Which was really hard. Not because I couldn't think up plot of the CD was hard or anything. It was because the training CD was **_**soo**_** boring that I had force myself to not start writing again and pay attention XD ha. Oh! And there was those twenty minutes I ignored both to go check out Deviantart… That place is addicting.**

**And I'm kind of proud of myself. I was able to write an Uchiha brother story and not turn it into slash XD. Sorry to all you Uchihacest fans out there. Not this time.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did I wouldn't be making people believe that a certain character ((who shall be remained unnamed for spoiler purposes)) is dead and then, once most fans of the character have excepted that fact, show that they're alive… You can be such a douche sometimes Kishimoto-sensei.**

**Warning: Violence, gore and spoilers ((more like hints to spoilers)) up to chapter 401. Because I don't think it's suitable to have a story about Itachi and not have it be gruesome in some way. I mean… it feel wrong, doesn't it? XD ha. Or maybe it's just me.**

**Important: Dedicated to Itachi for his birthday! … You know, considering his past, it's kind of wrong to say that Itachi is one of my favorite characters XP. Oh well. HE DID IT OUT OF LOVE! XD ha**

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_I let out a long sigh._

_It was a sort of mental preparation for the task I was about to do. I remember not being able to think of anything else except this mission for the entire day. I had tried to distant myself from the mission, but how I could I possibly detach myself from this? _

_How could anyone even remotely sane do this?_

_I opened my dark eyes, believing that had done enough thinking and mental preparation. But really, it was just so that I would not be able to think myself into backing down from this task. That was something that I could not do above all else. Too many lives were at stake._

_Instead I chose to let my order run through my brain, instead of the consequences that would arise from my actions. It was better this way. This way I wouldn't lose my nerve._

_My eyes changed from black to red in an instant and I took off to complete my task. The thought I remembered going through my brain, breaking through my mantra of my orders, was thinking that if I left now I would be able to spare him._

_Him._

_I allowed myself to other intruding thoughts as I took out into the village, determined to start my mission. I could not allow myself to slip up. Not now. This was too crucial. The entire fate of my village rested on me now. If I succeeded in my task, then thousands of lives, and the village I called my home, would be saved._

_It would only cost me the lives of my entire clan._

_The limitations of my mission were simple enough: Leave no one alive. Done. I could do this. It's what I was trained to do. It is what all those years of studying the ancient arts of ninjutsu had been for. Though my family had hoped that they could use me as their spy; leaving the burden of the title of traitor for me and me alone. It did not matter how strong the blood was between us. This was the only way to stop the bloodshed within the village. It would prevent a civil war of sorts._

_I would prevent war._

_I could feel my heart beat faster as I began fulfilling the task at hand. Though it was the only part of my body that I could feel at the time. I believe that I had gone into a sort of auto-pilot mode throughout it all. I was thankful for this. I don't think I could have gone through with this had I been fully aware of my action. After all, they were still family. And their death would take their toll on my soul after the mission was over and I would finally let my brain think freely yet again._

_Faces passed by as I took one victim after another. Their blood littering my clothes and skin as I took out without a passing thought. The warm liquid contrasting greatly with my pale skin failed to register any emotion out of me. If it were not for the fact that my eyes had witnessed the crimson fluid splatter on myself, I would have never known that their blood was staining my body at all. My limbs seemed to have lost all feeling in them a while ago. Most likely when this mission started._

_It went quickly. Or I at least remember it going quickly. Either way, it was only after I was finished, looming down at the Uchiha compound that was littered with the fallen bodies of my clan, that my brain and body finally came out of its automatic state and release control of its thoughts and action back to me._

_And that was also the same time that he finally showed up._

_My younger brother._

_Sasuke._

_And just as quickly as my body had finally had a chance to relax and to escape from that cold and distant mask I had shrouded myself within, I pulled it back on knowing full well what needed to be done._

_For there was still one matter to deal with._

_My parents._

_I left them for last. Maybe it was the cynical part of me wanting to relish in the death of my father, the very person who pushed me to be the best that I could, all so that he could use me, his own son, as the tool for the destruction of the only home I've ever known. Maybe it was the part of me that wanted to finally do something to my mother, the one who always held her tongue and allowed my father to use me and to force me into a role I did not wish to fill. Maybe it was the part of me that resented those two people more than anything else that left them for last._

_Or maybe it was because, despite how horrible they were as parents, they were still mine._

_I did not think about my reasons at the time. I only thought about completing my mission. It would soon be over and I had done it all without once running into him. Hopefully everything would be over before he got back. I don't want him to see me kill. Even though I know he must think of me as a wicked and evil brother, I don't see him to actually see the proof before his young and innocent eyes._

_I heard him yelling out for our mother and father, as they tried to stop him from seeing them as they were helpless to stop their own son from killing them. I quickly stopped them from making any further noise. The muffled screams and moans from their deaths were the final incentive for Sasuke to finally rip open the door to see me standing over their lifeless bodies as they lay in a pile on the ground._

_As he called out to them a second time, I turned my gaze from the limp bodies at my feet to glare intensely at the young boy standing in the doorway._

_He seemed to not notice it._

"_Big brother!" he called out, obviously confused and scared. "… Big brother!! Big brother!! Father and mother are…!! How?! Why?! Who would do such a…"_

_I cut off his babbling there as I threw a throwing star at the door, successfully closing it along with scratching his shoulder in the process. I was simple unable to stand hearing anymore of his confused pleas for me to answer questions which answers should have been made obvious. His innocent and love for me must have sent his mind into denial._

_I closed my eyes before I answered, not wanting to see his frighten expression._

"_Foolish little brother…" was my only response before I slowly reopened my eyes and sent him into a world where he was forced to relive scenes of me murdering every single member of the Uchiha clan over and over again. I saw him collapse to the ground mere seconds after I had opened my eyes. The sight of his family dying by my hand must have been far too much for him to accept._

"_Why… did you..?" he began to plea again. I paused. Here was my chance to tell him the truth. About our family and what was brewing beneath the surface of civility of the Uchiha clan and the rest of our village. What I was and who had assisted me in fulfilling this mission that had killed our entire clan._

"_To measure my capacity." was my quick response. There was the last chance to tell him the truth and I snatch it away. I may regret it, but at least this way his anger will be directed at me, instead of the village that he calls home._

"… _Measure your capacity…?" he asked after a pause. "You… you killed them… for that?" I could tell that he was angry. Good. He could hate me all he wanted. It would be better that way._

"_I had to."_

"_What's…" he began to stiff his body off the floor before he jutting himself forward and shouted out to me with all the volume his little lungs could manage. "… WRONG WITH YOU?!" He stumbled over his feet and fell to the floor, falling right beside the bodies of our mother and father. The situation proved too much for him. As tears whelmed up in his eyes, he dash out of the house in his attempt to save his own life and not suffer the same fate as the rest of our clan. I intercepted him, making sure that he would fully believe the lie that I had planned for him the moment I accepted this mission. He stared at me for a moment, fear evident in his young eyes before began to cry again as he begged me to tell him this was all a joke and that none of this was real._

"_It's not true." He cried out. "My brother wouldn't do this. Because…"_

"_Pretending to be the kind of brother you hoped for… was to determine your ability." _

_Judging by his hurt expression I knew that was not the answer that he wanted to hear. But it was the only answer I was willing to give him. I would not risk him ending up like the rest of his clan and hate the village that he had grown to love._

"_You'll become the one through whom I can confirm my ability." I said as I continued on with my lie. "You have that potential. You've felt anger and hated me. You've always hoped to surpass me, so I'll let you live… for my sake."_

_He seemed to be slowly accepting what had happened as I continued to speak to him. But I could help but leave him at least one clue to the secrets behind our clan. Maybe he would think of it as another reason in my supposed quest to test my power or to obtain more. Or maybe he will interrupt it in a different way._

"_In the Nakano Shrine's main hall…" I continued to speak, giving my brother the only clue I would allow. "Under the seventh tatami mat from the right, there's a clan secret meeting place."_

_He looked confused by sudden change in topic, but I did not let him interrupt and ask me of what I was speaking. He needed to hear this. Because it was the only truth that I could tell him._

"_There's a reason we Uchiha have ocular jutsu. The truth is written there." He looked confused and his tears dried up as he tried to understand everything that I was telling him. "If you open your eyes to the truth… then you will also obtain the eyes. If that happens… then I will be right in letting you live."_

_I took a step forward and the sudden movement from me sent Sasuke into a another short fit of fear as he let out a small shriek as he instinctually moved back to try and escape from me, should I try to kill him next. I closed my eyes again and then continued to speak to him, hoping that it would keep him from running away from me yet again._

"_Right now, you… are not even worth killing. Baby brother, you're pathetic. If you want to kill me, settle for hating me. Hate me and live… like the coward you are! Clinging to life without honor!" I dared not look at him just yet, but I could sense somehow that he was unable to hold back his fear any longer. I imagined him shaking and sweating; terrified that I would kill him at any moment like the other members of our clan. How ironic it was that he must be the single human being in existence that I could not bring myself to kill. "And someday," I continued on. "When you have the same eyes as I… you will find me again."_

_With those final words I opened my eyes yet again and sent his mind back into the darkness and watched as his body collapsed to the ground yet again. While he lay there unconscious, I turned away from the sight of my brother laying there almost as lifelessly as the rest of our family and walked away from the Uchiha compound and the entire village, believe this to be the last time I ever set foot there again._

--

Itachi woke up with a start as his alarm clock continuously shrieked and beeped loudly, stirring him from his night of rest and forcing the raven-haired boy back to the world of consciousness. His pale hand reached out quickly and turned off the annoying machine off so that he could at least retain the peace and quiet that his bedroom once held.

With a sigh, Itachi whipped the thin layer of sweat off of his brow and looked cautiously around his room, his mind still half consumed within the dream that he had whilst he slept. He let his head fall back onto his pillow and let his eyes close yet again, hoping that he could earn a few more minutes of rest before he needed to be up.

But it seem that he would not have such luck today.

He heard a knock at his door and groaned softly before he slowly sat up in his bed and glared daggers at the door from which the noise had come. "What is it?" he asked, trying to sound less anger than he felt.

The door opened slowly and revealed Sasuke to be the one whom had knocked, forcing the older boy from his attempts at getting a few more minutes of sleep. "Sorry, but I just wanted to tell you that mom and dad left early today. They… they want you to take me to school this morning." The young boy lingered shyly in the doorway as he waited for his older brother to give him anything that was even remotely similar to an answer.

Itachi's gaze softened at the sight of his younger brother. He pulled his covers off of his body and turned himself so that his legs were now dangling over the side of his bed. A smile adorned his face as he held his hand outward to the younger of the two siblings. "Come here, Sasuke." Itachi said with a small smile playing on his lips.

Sasuke's expression lit up with childish joy as he ran over to his older brother. But as soon as the young boy reached his elder sibling, Itachi simple struck his forehead with his index and middle finger.

"Ow!" Sasuke yelled out as he backed away from his older brother slightly, before he looked up at his sibling, his face shifting into a half scowl half pout. Itachi laughed at the adorable look that his brother's face wore and finally stood up from his place on his bed.

"Sorry, Sasuke. I couldn't help myself."

"Hmph." Sasuke huffed as he rubbed his wounded forehead.

"Don't be upset with me too much." Itachi said somewhat nervously as his little brother continued to glare at him as menacingly as an eight-year-old boy could. "All right. I'll take you to school on my bike. But that means that we'll have to leave early, so go get ready."

The young raven's expression changed back to one of happiness as he heard his brother's words. He nodded his head in agreement and then scampered out of his brother's room to get ready. Itachi shook his head and let out a small laugh and then went off to get ready for school himself.

Sometime later the two boys found themselves on their way to Sasuke's school, the young of the two riding on the back of his brother's bicycle quietly as his brother continued to pedal onward also in silence. The older of the Uchiha siblings looked back at his younger brother from over his shoulder and noticed the young boy clinging loosely onto his shirt, looking as if he wanted the silence between them to end.

Itachi smiled fondly and then focused back on the scenery ahead of him as he continued to ride them both toward Sasuke's school.

"Hey, Sasuke." Itachi chirped up as he broke the silence finally.

"Hn. What is it, brother?" he asked as his big eyes looked up curiously at his older sibling.

"I had a dream last night."

"About what?"

Itachi paused for a second as he tried to recall the already half forgotten dream that he had last night. It had not been long since he had been asleep, wrapped up in the midst of the dream, and yet the details of the dream were already slipping away from him. "I don't remember much of it." He paused again to look back and noticed the almost disappointed look that Sasuke gave, thinking that Itachi would not notice with his attention focused on riding his bike. "But I do remember that I was a ninja." Itachi added in, his voice happier in hopes that it would get Sasuke's attention yet again.

"Really?" Sasuke said as his eyes lit up in hopes of hearing about Itachi's ninja dream. "Did you do a lot of cool things in the dream, big brother?"

"I sure did. I jumped up on a telephone poll and use lots of ninja weapons."

Sasuke continued to listen on as his older brother talked more about his dream, full of curiosity and wonder and respect for his older brother. And that was how the two of them spent the rest of their time riding to Sasuke's school, laughing all the way about ninjas.

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**Didn't expect it to be an AU did you? Well I hope not. I'd be kind of sad if you guys saw that one coming. Also, sorry it's so short. It would have been longer but I decided to leave out a lot of the conversation that goes on between Sasuke and Itachi. **_**God**_** Itachi talks a lot D:!**


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